brainiac conspiracy

Zero Blogging Day

Out all day doing some sort of crazy family stuff that I haven't done in 25 years and may never do again, so be kind to any rodents you meet while I'm away.

---Baron V

Today's Worst Person

Barack Obama.

To be fair, these jobs are in---technically speaking, at least---training programs that prepare the disabled for a decent-paying career in the future. But so do unpaid internships, and I don't believe in them, either. You do a job, you deserve to get paid something, period. And no one who works full-time should be so poor as to qualify for food stamps. This is not a small deal. Hundreds of thousands of people could have been helped, but now won't be. Even more to the point, $10 an hour is equal to like, $20 grand a year. No one is going to get rich off these wages, so make the minimum the same for everyone already.

---Baron V

Roads Not Taken

It's a bit of apples-to-oranges, perhaps, but it's worth remembering that there have always been other economic policy options available to our political leaders beyond the ones they've chosen: That they didn't "have" to rescue the American financial system, and they didn't "have" to prop it up with perpetual stimulus to boost asset prices. These things they chose to do. They weren't "forced to" because more effective alternatives have always been available:

Iceland let its banks fail in 2008 because they proved too big to save.

Now, the island is finding crisis-management decisions made half a decade ago have put it on a trajectory that’s turned 2 percent unemployment into a realistic goal.

While the euro area grapples with record joblessness, led by more than 25 percent in Greece and Spain, only about 4 percent of Iceland’s labor force is without work. Prime MinisterSigmundur D. Gunnlaugsson says even that’s too high.

“Politicians always have something to worry about,” the 38-year-old said in an interview last week. “We’d like to see unemployment going from where it’s now---around 4 percent---to under 2 percent, which may sound strange to most other western countries, but Icelanders aren’t accustomed to unemployment.”

And neither should we. A job that pays a livable wage should be a right, not a privilege, and if the jobs just can't be created, then a guaranteed annual income. Sure, there will always be some poor people in this country---nobody believes we can eradicate poverty completely. But the economic system under which we toil deliberately creates millions of poor and jobless people as a means of generating value for shareholders. We don't need fine-tune it with MyRAs or technology hubs or public-private partnerships; we need to grenade it and rebuild it from the ground up.

---Baron V

If You Build It

Okay, it's altogether possible that connecting LAX to the Metro light-rail system won't result in a huge number of local residents abandoning their cars and shuttle vans to get to the airport. On the other hand, one out of eleven people in the L.A. area relies on public transit as their primary transportation source. That's a lot of people! Also too, ridership on light rail has grown each year as the system continues to be built out, while bus ridership has remained basically flat. I think that means that people prefer trains over buses; even though buses are much more cost-effective, trains are far more comfortable and can travel much faster.

Finally, millions of people come to visit our fair city from all over the world, and many of them may never have owned or driven a car in their life. The first things they're going to notice when they arrive are (1) airport amenities and (2) transit options. The first, we've handled. The second, we haven't. So let's give people some nice things for a change, and build the damn rail line already.

---Baron V

What They're Afraid Of

Besides being overindulged little assholes whose exorbitant salaries bear no relation to their value to society, I think what's got most of our Galtian overlords riled up is the fear, however unconscious, that growing numbers of Americans are getting hip to the game, and realizing that the peculiar brand of capitalism they practice is, essentially, a form of theft that intentionally impoverishes tens of millions of people as a matter of doing business. And sooner or later, people are going to decide that they want the thievery to stop, and the corrective measures they take won't be to the plutocrats' liking. No, I don't expect another French Revolution (nor do I particularly want one), but mass mobilizations and general strikes? Bring 'em on already. #Occupy was only a dress rehearsal.

---Baron V

He'll Be Missed

Maddening as Team Democrat has been to many of us on the left, one thing I've never had any reason to complain about is my own personal Congressperson, who hails from a time when Democrats actually cared about labor and the environment, and actually threatened to impeach a President for breaking the law instead of imploring us to look forward, never back. But that was then and this is now, so those of us in the district will probably end up being represented by another neoliberal corporatist next year.

---Baron V

Probably Restating the Obvious

But in case nobody has noticed, we are running out of water. So why are we using millions of gallons of it for energy extraction instead of for people? I mean, you would think that policymakers in Washington would be, oh I dunno, maybe calling for massive infrastructure spending to build a string of desalination plants up and down the Pacific coast. Someone could even give a speech about it! But I am guessing we can't do these things anymore unless we create an enterprise zone or a technology hub, and partner up with a lot of the same job creators who make this problem worse. That's just how we roll nowadays.

---Baron V

Couldn't Happen to a Better Bunch of People

I've blogged about this before, but in a perfect world, i.e., one where I was in charge, there would be no need for parasitic sports sanctioning bodies like the NCAA because all the member schools/conferences would be free to negotiate their own TV contracts, licensing deals, etc., without the NCAA skimming its cut off the top. On the other hand, there are alternatives that might even be more effective at representing the interests of student athletes. Let's hope this is the start of a nationwide trend.

---Baron V

Not Rocket Surgery

When a big storm hits your little town, and everybody scurries home from work and school at the same exact time, and there are few alternatives to driving a car to get from Point A to B, you're going to have some hellacious gridlock, and it's pointless to blame elected officials for it. You want to fix the problem, then insist the government provide more public transit options than are currently available. Of course, this means that all the rich "makers" who live in the suburbs will have to pay more in taxes to run transit lines from the 'burbs to the urban core where all the poor "takers" live. In places like the South, of course, that's why public transit is typically lousy---because de white folks don't want their tax dollars going to improve the mobility of "those people." But whether you chalk it up to greed or racism or just plain shortsightedness, when you have a situation like they've got in Atlanta right now, it's probably because local politics have willed it that way, and changing figureheads won't make any difference if there's no accompanying change in policy.

---Baron V

SOTU ---> STFU

This is a bit more like it:

Yeah, okay, she's only a lowly City Councilperson, but I think it highlights one of the most maddening elements of Team Democrat's public policy agenda: To make the pie higher for everyone, we must form promise zones and technology hubs and public-private partnerships with the very same job creators who hold the keys to the bakery and who've been hoarding all the dough. I realize they don't push this line with the same sadistic gusto that the other side does---I mean, Republicans genuinely want to punish poor people---but this almost-childlike faith in our capitalist overlords to do right by the commons if we just throw them more tax credits would be downright comical if it weren't for the fact that millions of people's lives have been irreparably harmed by it.

---Baron V

Keep On Fracking

Because it's the bridge fuel to power our economy:

America is closer to energy independence than we've been in decades. One of the reasons why is natural gas---if extracted safely, it's the bridge fuel that can power our economy with less of the carbon pollution that causes climate change. Businesses plan to invest almost $100 billion in new factories that use natural gas. I'll cut red tape to help states get those factories built, and this Congress can help by putting people to work building fueling stations that shift more cars and trucks from foreign oil to American natural gas.

And because there's plenty of water to go around.

---Baron V

It's Our Fault II

Following up on the previous, what I mean by this is an attitude that I took away from the speech. I know the President didn't mean it that way, but it's like this: There are millions of skilled professionals in all manner of trades---school teachers, construction workers, factory hands---who can't find work. Some of them have been performing their jobs for decades, and it's really not fair to lecture people on the need to re-train themselves for the "jobs of the 21st Century" because a bunch of criminal banks destroyed their businesses, cratered their local tax base, and stole their homes. Most people who lost their jobs in the recession did so through no fault of their own, so don't ask them pull up their own bootstraps. There's still a critical need for school teachers and construction workers and factory hands, after all, so push for a jobs program for them, and if the jobs simply can't be created, pay them a guaranteed annual income. We got big problems in this country. Little-ball solutions won't cut it.

The "MyRA" proposal---which is what exactly, a somewhat less risky 401(k)?---was even more offensive. If Social Security isn't enough to retire on, you expand Social Security, not supplement it with a program that the neediest people will never be able to access. That's because tens of millions of Americans are living from paycheck to paycheck. They can't afford to save for retirement because at the end of the month, they have no money to save. What good is this program going to be for them? As with 401(k)s, the only people who will get rich off it will be the fund managers who collect their quarterly fees.

Then again, this assumes that these are serious policy proposals and not some poll-tested talking points that will boost the overnight approval ratings. I know that sounds awfully cynical, but I can't think of any other reason why such ineffectual half-measures would be trotted out in a major policy speech except that the President's team either (a) knows that their time to change the outcome of the game has long since passed, or (b) they don't think we have a serious jobs/income problem.

---Baron V

It's All Our Fault

There was a time, in the oh-so-distant past, that if you worked in construction or engineering and you lost your job, and there was no private-sector demand for your services, the government gave you a job constructing and engineering things. If you were a farmer and the price of your crops crashed, you could sign up for government relief. If you were a writer or an actor and you couldn't find work, there were government projects you could enlist in. Young people just out of high school who couldn't find work could gain employment in government conservation initiatives. In short, government put people to work when the private sector failed them. But that was then, and this is now, and what we get from our government now are public-private partnerships and promise zones and technology hubs and all these privatization schemes that cost us money and which rarely ever deliver. Worst of all, I think, is the call to re-train the long-term unemployed for the jobs of the 21st Century, which is really a call to acquiesce to the permanence of a Wal-Mart economy that pays crap wages.

How to fix? I suppose the practical answer is to redouble our efforts to wrestle control of Team Democrat away from the neoliberal corporatists who have trashed the party's legacy, but at this point, I'm not really sure if that's even possible anymore. I hate to sound so pessimistic, but when you hear the leader of our liberal political party calling for corporate tax cuts and partnering with Verizon and Apple to deliver services that government should be providing for free, you know the game is up, and we've lost. I never thought that a politician like Barack Obama would be the person who drove me to embrace the Greens, but I don't think I want to be supporting people who claim to care about income inequality and climate change but who are actively pursuing policies that will make these problems worse. So until further notice, I'm outta Team Democrat.

---Baron V

Whistling Past The Graveyard

One more addendum: Sure, income inequality is an important topic, and one that should be addressed by the President in tonight's big speech. But as bad as the problem is--and it's never been worse in our lifetimes!---it still pales in comparison to the nagging little fact that we are, like, running out of water. Perhaps someone would consider proposing some policies to fix this.

---Baron V

And Another Thing

Elaborating on the previous post, you can't stake a claim for progressive activist government and simultaneously push for policy that will drive down wages, weaken the power of labor, hasten the demise of the environment, make capital controls impossible to impose on banks, extort billions from consumers in the form of higher prices, and undermine the principles of democratic self-government. But that's exactly---ahem---what the President is doing!

---Baron V

Reclaiming the Mantle

I suppose it's possible the President will offer a full-throated defense of progressive activist government tonight, but at this stage of the game, what does it really matter? Sure, raising the minimum wage---among other proposals we will likely hear---is politically popular and could help some members of Team Democrat in the fall midterms, but policy proposals without votes are just words on paper. Just think of what might have been achieved with a rousing speech on social justice when he had the political wind in his sails and big majorities in Congress! Because let's face it: the same problems that bedevil the country now---high unemployment, increasing poverty, a parasitic financial system, decaying infrastructure, and a money-sucking security-surveillance state---are pretty much the same ones that bedeviled us five years ago.

No matter what's outlined tonight, I think the salient takeaway from the Obama administration is likely to be this: strike while the iron is hot because, in reality, you only have a very short time to implement your core policy agenda. The Bush people understood this, and that's why they pushed hard for votes on tax cuts and education reform almost immediately after being declared the winners; and after 9/11, it's why they strong-armed the Congress into passing the Patriot Act with minimal debate. Of course, they grabbed for the brass ring once too often by pushing for Social Security "reform" immediately after Bush was re-elected, but the general principle applies: Hit the ground running in the first hundred days, when the popular will is still very much on your side and before the opposition has had a chance to re-frame the policy debate. And don't default to practicing the politics of the possible before you've explored all the alternatives. Negotiating with the opposition is difficult enough without having to negotiate with yourself.

---Baron V

Midday Music Blogging

I hate to confess, but I was never a huge fan of this guy's music---his style was a bit unctuous to my taste---but it's hard to think of another American entertainer who campaigned so tirelessly on behalf of progressive causes, and the world's a poorer place today that he's no longer in it.

---Baron V

Boycott Time

I've grown less and less interested in the Olympic Games as I've grown older---to me they're a relic of 19th-Century nationalism, and a colossal waste of money---but I will admit that some of their component events, like the luge and downhill skiing, are tremendous fun to watch. That said, I don't see how any conscientious person in this country would consider watching or attending the Games this year because they were entrusted to some of our planet's most truly horrible persons, who have done predictably horrible things in order to stage them. Trashing the planet doesn't deserve reward.

---Baron V

Credit Where Due

Okay, since I was bagging on the administration yesterday, I suppose they deserve some props whenever they do good works. It's pretty weak tea in the larger scheme of things, but better than no tea at all. Now how's about some more money for the rest of us?

---Baron V

Public-Private Partnerships

It's worth recalling that they were originally a concept that came out of conservative think tanks in the '70s. And as with most every conservative idea, it was a bad idea that overpromised and underdelivered. Or at least, for the publics. For the privates, hey, it's easy money, which is exactly the purpose of these grift schemes. So why is our liberal Democratic President promoting bad Republican ideas?

---Baron V